Thursday, September 2, 2010

Why Atheism?

1. There is not a shred of evidence for the existence of a god.  Generally, when there is no evidence for a thing, it is logical to conclude that the thing does not exist.  Everyone from the avowed atheist to the most religious clergyman understands and applies this simple rule of logic consistently—until the question of religion comes up.  Then suddenly the rule is turned on its head and demands are made for evidence that the thing does not exist.  A religious person won't demand proof that anyone else's god is false or that fairies don't exist.  He is more than satisfied by the lack of evidence for them.

2. Substantial evidence of falsehood:  The only evidence we have that relates to the subject of god is the ample evidence that gods are man-made and that humans make them up to answer important and perplexing mysteries for which they have no other explanation but which are too troubling for many people to ignore.

3. Furthermore, not only is there no evidence of a god, there is no evidence that any supernatural thing exists in any way, shape or form.  The entire class of items to which the hypothesized god allegedly belongs appears not to exist.
 
4. Extraordinary propositions require extraordinary evidence to be accepted.  Because of the grandiose nature of the claim (an invisible magic man capable of creating the universe), indicators of falsehood, and the lack of evidence for the entire class of items such as the one at issue, this hypothesized god must be classified as something extraordinary--with which I am sure even believers would agree.  This circumstance makes the lack of evidence for a god all the more damning.

No comments:

Post a Comment